There is an erasing apparatus that erases the color of the image by decoloring the color of the coloring material so that the sheet can be reused.
In the erasing apparatus, a developed coloring material is heated so as to reduce the effect of the developing agent on the coloring compound (the precursor compound of the pigment) that generates color by a developing material, thereby eliminating the colored state of the coloring material.
In an apparatus for heating the coloring material, the sheet carrying the coloring material, and the coloring material carried thereon, are conveyed to an erasing region including a heating roller and a pressing roller pressed toward the heating roller for heat treatment. The sheet to be decolored or erased is passed through the nip region of the two rollers, which presses the imaged side of the sheet against the heating roller to “decolor” or erase the image thereon. In this case, in order to prevent the sheet from winding around the heating roller, a separating hook is adopted.
When heated, the sheet that carries the coloring material curls due to the heat imparted thereto during decoloring. When separating hook is adopted to ensure that the sheet does not wrap or wind around the heating roller, to reliably separate a thin sheet or a sheet having color of the image erased therefrom the separating hook has to make contact with the surface of the heating roller. As a result, the coating of the surface of the heating roller becomes scratched, degrading the durability of the heating roller.
The purpose of the present disclosure is to solve the aforementioned problems of the related art by providing an erasing apparatus that decolors the color of the image developed by a developing material, while it maintaining high durability of the heating roller.